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PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) and .doc files (Microsoft Word format) of the overheads used in this presentation are available on the Three Faiths, One God Page and the Download page
Topics 1. The Sacred Story of Judaism 1.1. Two Founding Events in the History of Judaism 1.4. Torah and the Covenant at Mt. Sinai 1.5 The Promised Land and Kingdom 1.6. The Kingdom Declines. The Prophets 1.11. Oral Torah and the Making of the Talmud 1.11.2. The School of Galilee and the Palestinian Talmud 1.11.3. The School of Babylonia and the Babylonian Talmud 2.2. Creation and the Role of Human Beings 2.4. Human Redemption and Transformation
3.2.2. The Night of Power and Excellence 3.2.3. The Trip to Heaven on Buraq 3.2.5. The Hijra and the Establishment of the Ummah 3.2.6. The Submission of Mecca 3.3. The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs 3.4.2. The Hidden Imam. Twelvers 3.7.1. Four Sources for Shari'a 3.7.2. The Four Schools of Law 4.2. Creation and Role of Human Beings 4.4. Human Redemption and Transformation 4.4.1. The Path of Transformation to a Life of Felicity
Note: Quotations from the scriptures of Judaism and Islam in this outline are mostly those found in our primary reference, the The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World, 3rd Edition, Theodore M. Ludwig. Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN: 013025682X, chapters 20-22, and 26-38.
1. The Sacred Story of Judaism 1.1. Two Founding Events in the History of Judaism Two founding events in the history of Judaism
1.2. Prologue The first man and woman disobey God. God expels them from Paradise
God scatters humanity after it seeks to glorify itself by building the Tower of Babel
God calls Abram about the beginning of the second millennium BC
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of he earth shall be blessed Genesis 12:1-3 (NRSV)
God tests Abraham's faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac
The Covenant passes to Abraham's son Isaac, then to his grandson Jacob One night Jacob wrestles with God until God gave him God's blessing (Genesis 32:22-32). God tells Jacob:
"You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed - Genesis 32:28
Jacob's (= Israel's) descendents were called Hebrews or Israelites
The descendents of Jacob's twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel
The Israelites then become enslaved in Egypt
1.3. Exodus God hears the cries of his people and calls upon Moses to lead God's people from bondage.
God also reveals to Moses God's name: YHWH, which can be translated as:
The name of God YHWH is too sacred to speak. In texts, Adonai or LORD, is substituted:
God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you:' This is my name forever and this my title for all generations." - Exodus 3:15
God brings 10 Plagues upon the Egyptians, culminating in the tenth, the death of the all firstborns. Only then does Pharaoh relents and allow the Israelites to leave Egypt (the Exodus) The night of the tenth plague, the "Night of Watching" (Exodus 12) is commemorated in the Pesach festival (Passover) On this night, each Israelite family had to:
1.4. Torah and the Covenant at Mt. Sinai On Mt. Sinai, the greatest miracle in history took place:
"You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" - Leviticus 19:2 (NRSV)
1.5 The Promised Land and Kingdom About 1200 BC: The Israelites became established in Palestine
1200-1000 BC: Led an agricultural life. Tribal leaders (Judges) rose up to lead the people to fight off invasions
Then Israelites began to desire "…a king to govern us, like other nations." (1 Sam. 8:5). Samuel warns the LORD is their king. But God hears God's people and allows them to have a king, who becomes:
to rule as a symbol of YHWH over God's people
King David (1000 to 960 BC) consolidated all the tribes into the United Kingdom of Israel Jerusalem established as the royal city, the "City of David," and David took up residence on Mount Zion
David's son, King Solomon, build a great temple to house the Ark of the Covenant, and "the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD." (1 Kings 8:11, NRSV)
1.6. The Kingdom Declines. The Prophets King Solomon had many wives and concubines (700 wives, 300 concubines) and begin to worship the Gods of some of his foreign women. In punishment, God split the United Kingdom into:
The majority in both Kingdoms continued to break their covenant promises, oppressing the poor, worshiping other gods.
Prophets arose to preach the covenant obligations of the people of God; warning of God's wrath if they do not live up to their obligations
"Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities - Amos 3:1-2 (NRSV)
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream - Amos 5:23-24 (NRSV)
721 BC: Assyrian Empire destroyed and scattered the population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (the "ten lost tribes")
587 BC: the Neo-Babylonian Empire destroyed the Southern Kingdom of Judah; the few survivors were exiled to Babylon. The Temple (and Ark of the Covenant) are destroyed
It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever I please. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant… - Jeremiah 27:5-6 (NRSV)
But God nonetheless also promised not to abandon God's people:
Now … thus says the LORD, the God of Israel… "I am going to gather them from all the lands to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation; I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. They shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for all time, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul." - Jeremiah 32:36-41 (NRSV)
1.7. Return from Exile The Persian Empire conquered the Babylonians; King Cyrus allowed Jewish exiles to return to what was left of Jerusalem (it would take 150 years to rebuild the city) Under Ezra and then Nehemiah, character of Judaism begin to change:
1.8. Maccabean Revolt Temple rebuilt; Palestine became part of the empire of Alexander the Great and the splinter states that rose after this death.
Antiochus IV (Seleucid king) tried to Hellenize the Jews; in 167 BC he set up an altar to Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem. 165 BC: Jewish fighters led by the Maccabean family drove out the Seleucids and cleansed the temple (celebrated at Hanukkah)
165 BC to 63 BC: Jews again independent
1.9. Roman Domination 63 BC: Roman Empire took over Palestine
Roman client king Herod the Great (d. 4 BC) remodeled the temple in marble splendor
70 AD: the Jews rebelled. Emperor Vespasian, succeeding Nero, ordered his son Titus to subdue the Jews. Titus proceeded to do this with salvage efficiency:
1.10. The Great Diaspora The razing of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by the Romans changed Judaism:
Once as Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai was coming from Jerusalem, Rabbi Joshua followed after him and beheld the Temple in ruins. "Woe unto us!," Rabbi Joshua cried, "that this, the place where the iniquities of Israel were atoned for, is laid waste!" "My son," Rabban Johanan said to him, "be not grieved: we have another atonement as effective as this. And what is it? It is acts of loving-kindness, as it is said, 'For I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' - Avot de Rabbi Natan, chapter 6
The Rabbis taught:
1.11. Oral Torah and the Making of the Talmud 1.11.1. Oral Torah At Mount Sinai, God gave God's people the wisdom of the whole Torah:
The Oral Torah remains open – rabbis to this day participate with God in the giving of the Torah. Oral Torah is just as sacred as written Torah.
1.11.2. The School of Galilee and the Palestinian Talmud The Oral Torah of almost 150 rabbis were collected by the Rabbinic School of Galilee (Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi) as the Mishnah ("Repetition" or "Study"), completed about 220 AD Commentary on the Mishnah called Gemara or "Supplementary Learning" was collected by the School for Galilee over the next 200 years and added to the Mishnah, producing the Palestinian Talmud about 425 AD
Note that:
1.11.3. The School of Babylonia and the Babylonian Talmud Many Israelites remained in Babylon after the exile of 586 BC; and many refugees fled to Babylonia after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD Rabbinic School of Babylonia became the major center of Jewish scholarship It also collected commentary on the Mishnah (Gemara or "Supplementary Learning") and produced the Babylonian Talmud about 500 AD
1.12. The Kabbala Kabbalah
The Zohar (Book of Splendor) is the most important source of Kabbalah
2.1. God The Shema: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4)
God is:
2.2. Creation and the Role of Human Beings God is the creator. God's creation is good, and reflects the glory of God Human beings are created in the "image of God," created just "a little lower than God," and are partners with God in the fulfillment of God's will
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet - Psalm 6:3-6 (NRSV)
2.3. Sin Sin is averah = transgressing God's will Sin is: "any act or attitude whether of omission or commission which nullifies God's will, obscures His glory, profanes His name, opposed His kingdom, or transgresses the Mitzvoth [commandments] of the Torah" - Milton Steinberg
There is no such thing as "original sin" or "fallen humanity" in Judaism. Human beings have two basic inclinations
The evil inclination drives human beings to gratify their instincts and desires. Includes appetite, sexual drive The evil inclination is necessary and therefore good: "if it were not for the evil inclination, man would not build a house, or take a wife, or beget a child, or engage in business"(Gen. R. Bereshit, 9:7)
Life is a continuing struggle to use the evil inclination in a positive, life-affirming way. It was necessary for God to "wound" human beings by giving them the evil inclination, but God gives them Torah as the antidote
2.4. Human Redemption and Transformation God redeems by searching and calling human beings to be what they were created to be. Three movements of God:
Repentance of our sins is highest virtue in Judaism It is a purely human act (no "grace" of God involved). Requires:
Only after 1-3 can a sinner ask for God's forgiveness and receive God's mercy
Yom Kippur (Day the Atonement), one of the most holy days of Judaism, is for repentance
Path of transformation (becoming holy) involves:
613 mitzvot (365 negative commandments; 248 positive commandments) Halakhah ("the way:" body of law largely based on oral tradition, defining the holy way of life) in the Gemara of the Talmud) tells how the mitzvot apply to everyday life
Following the Halakhah ("the way") brings about an inner transformation
"The true goal for man is to be what he does… A mitzvah therefore, is not mere doing but an act that embraces both the doer and the deed. The means may be external, but the end is personal… It is a distortion to say that Judaism consists exclusively of performing ritual or moral deeds, and to forget that the goal of all performing is in transforming the soul. Even before Israel was told in the Ten Commandments what to do it was told what to be: a holy people. To perform deeds of holiness is to absorb the holiness of deeds… Man is not for the sake of good deeds; the good deeds are for the sake of man… The goal is not that a ceremony be performed; the goal is that man be transformed; to worship the Holy in order to be holy. The purpose of the mitzvoth is to sanctify man - Abraham Heschel
Judaism is not a "missionary" religion; one does not have to be a Jew to be saved
God intended the Torah for all nations, but only the Jews accepted it As the covenant people of God, Jews have the responsibility and joy of the covenant and the life of the Torah, but it does not mean they are better than other people
2.5. The Life To Come The righteous will be rewarded in Gan Eden (Paradise) Traditional Jews also believe in the resurrection of the body, to be reunited with the soul in the bliss of Paradise
This world is like a vestibule before the world to come; prepare thyself in the vestibule, that thou mayest enter into the hall. He used to say, "Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the world to come; and better is one hour of blissfulness of spirit in the world to come than the whole life of this world." - Rabbi Jacob, Aboth 4:21,22
3. The Sacred Story of Islam 3.1. Prologue God created the world, Adam and Eve, and from them, all humanity
God sent prophets, for example: Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus; to guide humankind
Abraham was the father of:
God tested Abraham's faith by commanding him to sacrifice Ishmael. Abraham obeyed, and became the first Muslim ("one who submits to God"). Abraham practiced true Islam (islam = "submission to God")
Sarah forced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Abraham sent them to Mecca
Abraham later visited Ishmael in Mecca. They submitted to God and rebuilt God's house in Mecca, the Ka'bah (destroyed in the flood)
The Time of Ignorance (al-jahiliyyah). Humanity became steeped in ignorance, superstition. The religions revealed by Moses and Jesus were originally true Islam but later Jews and Christians distorted the teachings
The descendents of Abraham and Ishmael in Arabia were also ignorant, worshiping multiple gods:
God decided to raise up among them a final prophet
God chose Arabia because:
3.2. Muhammad 3.2.1. Early Life Muhammad born in Mecca in 570 AD, of the clan of Hashim, tribe of the Quraish (group that controlled the Ka'bah)
3.2.2. The Night of Power and Excellence Troubled by the religious practices of his people, Muhammad began to go a cave in the Mountain of Hira to meditate
One night (the "Night of Power and Excellence," the night worth a thousand months, Qur'an 97:1-5) in the month of Ramadan, he had a vision of a glorious being, an angel, standing near the horizon, who moved towards him, saying "O Muhammad, you are the messenger of God!" This was the angel Gabriel, who commanded:
Recite: In the Name of thy Lord who created, created Man of a blood-clot. Recite: And thy Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the Pen, taught Man what he knew not - Qur'an 96:1-5
3.2.3. The Trip to Heaven on Buraq Associated with the Night of Power and Excellence, or perhaps on another night:
Jerusalem is the third holiest city in Islam, after Mecca and Medina
3.2.4. Final Prophet For the rest of his life, Muhammad received revelations from God at frequent intervals
He memorized the divine messages and taught them to his companions
Became convinced:
Muhammad's wife Khadija was the first to submit to the new revelations and become a Muslim. After 3 years of revelations, he was commanded to preach openly to all Meccans
619 AD: uncle Abu Talib and his wife Khadija died; he lost protection of the clan.
3.2.5. The Hijra and the Establishment of the Ummah In 620 AD, the city of Yathrib (250 miles north; later renamed Medina) asked Muhammad to mediate a dispute among its clans; one year later it promised he could be leader of the city
622 AD: Muhammad and his followers migrated to Yathrib (Medina) -- the Hijra Muhammad built his house and a hall of prayer = mosque (masjid) in the quarter of Banu Najjar In Medina, he established the community of Islam, the Ummah, consisting of:
622 AD is year 1 in the Islamic calendar (1 AH; anno hegirae)
During his time in Medina, Muhammad also established the basic rituals and duties of Muslims, now called the Five Pillars:
Originally Muslims faced Jerusalem in prayer; in a later revelation to Muhammad in Medina (Qur'an 2:142-150) this was changed to the Ka'bah
Muhammad married many wives after Khadija's death (many of them widows killed in battles with the Meccans); they were to help spread the faith, and are collectively called the "Mothers of the Believers"
3.2.6. The Submission of Mecca The Meccans unsuccessfully assaulted the Medinans three times
A 10 year truce was then arranged.
However, in 630 AD, the Meccans again became hostile. Muhammed headed to Mecca with an army of 10,000. Meccans met him a day's journey away and agreed to submit to the new faith.
Muhammad granted a general clemency to Mecca, personally entered the Kab'al and destroyed 360 idols, proclaiming:
God is great! Truth has come. Falsehood has vanished
Henceforth, the Kab'al was a shine dedicated to Allah, where only Muslims could worship
3.2.7. The Death of Muhammad In June 632 AD, Muhammad died in the arms of his young wife Aisha
Although Muhammad was only a prophet of God, a human being, his life is looked upon as model for lives of all Muslims His words and actions were recorded by his companions in the Hadiths ("traditions")
3.3. The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs Under the first four caliphs (deputies of Muhammad), Islam expanded to become a religion extending far beyond Arabia
The majority of Muslims (the Sunnites) hold that the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs were the rightful successors to Muhammad
3.4. The Twelve Imams 3.4.1. The Shi'a Movement One faction of Muslims felt that Ali, (Muhammad's cousin and husband of his daughter Fatima) and his descendants were the rightful successors of the prophet: shi'at 'Ali (faction of Ali) or Shi'ites
Shi'ites trace twelve Imams from Imam Ali
3.4.2. The Hidden Imam. Twelvers The 12th Imam, named Muhammad, disappeared and went into a state of hiding/occultation (ghaybah). Many Shi'ites believe that this 12th Imam, the Hidden Imam
Shi'ite Believers in the Hidden Imam are called the Twelvers
3.5. The Qur'an The Qur'an is the most sacred scripture of Islam.
3.6. The Hadith After the Qur'an, the most sacred scriptures of Islam are the Hadith (Tradition), consisting of recollections of Muhammad's words and actions
Six books of Hadith or tradition have general acceptance. The top two:
3.7. The Shari'a 3.7.1. Four Sources for Shari'a Shari'a = the Way, the true path, the Law of Islam Derived from four sources:
Muslims who follow this procedure are called Sunnis or Sunnites
3.7.2. The Four Schools of Law The Four Schools of Law, and the sources (see above) they use for making Shari'a:
4.1. God The name of God is on the lips of a devout Muslim throughout the day:
God is utterly transcendent, totally separate from the created realm Shirk is the greatest sin – mixing something else with God (the fallacy of Christians, mixing flesh with God) To liken God to anything else threatens God's oneness: therefore, all pictures and images of God are forbidden Although God is separate from creation, God is nonetheless present everywhere To God belong the East and West; whithersoever you turn, there is the Face of God (Qur'an 2:115)
An attribute of God particularly stressed is God's mercy, -- as we can see in the bismillah opening every sura / chapter of the Qur'an: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. . .
4.2. Creation and Role of Human Beings God is Masters of the worlds God created everything to serve God, and the worth of creation lies in its servanthood to the Creator
God created the worlds in six days, and was managing the world the next day -- for God requires no rest. There is no "Sabbath" or day of rest in Islam
Human beings are God's special creation
Surely We created you of dust then of a sperm-drop, then of a blood clot, then of a lump of flesh, formed and unformed that We may make clear to you.
And We establish in the wombs what We will, till a stated term, and We deliver you as infants, then that you may come of age. - Qur'an 22:5
Human beings have the special role of exercising dominion over creation as the "caliphs" of God
The goal of human beings is to submit to God (become perfect Muslims)
4.3. Sin Human beings are "muslim" by nature (and so not fundamentally sinful or fallen).
But human beings tend to be forgetful and negligent of their true nature. They "fall asleep, forgetting how they must fulfill their true nature through submission to God
Because human beings are "muslim" by nature, it is possible to be perfect -- God does not require what is beyond our capabilities.
A Kafir (unbeliever) is a person who denies God. Such a person
There is ultimately no excuse to die as an unbeliever, for during a lifetime, God sends sufficient "reminders" to awake them out of their forgetfulness
4.4. Human Redemption and Transformation 4.4.1. The Path of Transformation to a Life of Felicity Muslims do not speak of being "saved" or "redeemed, " but of achieving a "life of felicity" -- which we are fully capable of by nature -- with God's design The path of transformation to a life of felicity, of islam, of submission to God's design, is achieved through:
4.4.2. Jihad The path of transformation is a continuous struggle with the tendency to forget / neglect our true nature, which is to submit to God's design Jihad: the struggle to establish God's design in the world. May be:
Life then is a continual jihad against unbelievers, evildoers, and our own forgetfulness and neglectfulness
4.5. The Life To Come The reward for Muslims whose good deeds outnumber their sins is Paradise, a place of sensual and spiritual pleasures
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